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- Feb 26, 2017
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It is tiny. Maybe 1/4" across
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We don't have a refugium set up. We were seeing crabs of various types in there. Even a few gorilla crabs. We pulled the live rock out today, broke out the tweezers and plucked twelve assorted ones out. I don't want anybody who might eat the corals we plan to have. We even found two juvenile shrimp. We think they were mantis shrimp, based on what we saw online. We are still hearing clicking in the tank. Grrrrrr.I agree with GHSaltie - decorator crabs are fairly cool critters, but they are crabs, and therefore likely to be fairly opportunistic feeders. Sort of ... scavengers for the most part, but won't pass up easy protein in whatever form it comes.
The other thing to be aware of is their decorating - they'll pick up whatever they find and stick it to their carapace. (They've got some fuzz up there that works a bit like Velcro.) Could be algae today, might be your favorite sponge tomorrow.
Not bad as crabs go ... but still a crab. Got a refugium?
~Bruce
Single clicks. I feel much better thinking they might "just" be pistols. We will wait a bit and repeat the process of removing the live rock and hunting for more bad guys. The down side to live rock, I guess, is nasty hitchhikers. We did gain a nice finger sponge, a few tunicates, some coralline algae and other stuff, but I worry about opportunistic critters when we want to add lovely, expensive corals.You might have a pistol or two as well, which are much less unpleasant than the "thumbsplitter" mantis.
I'm told that mantis clicks are often rapid-fire bursts, while pistols are single-shot. Which are you hearing?
~Bruce